Qualcomm has announced a new Processor in its 6-series lineup, dubbed Snapdragon 6 Gen 3. The new arrival of 6 Gen 3 comes after Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 earlier in June this year. If we talk of specifications, the chip seems like an underclocked version of Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, which debuted in September last year.
Snapdragon 6 Gen 3: Specifications
Qualcomm’s latest mid-tier chipset, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 is built on 4nm process. It includes an octa-core CPU configuration consisting of four Cortex A78 performance cores running at 2.4GHz and four Cortex A55 efficiency cores operating at 1.8Ghz. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, on the other hand, has efficiency cores running at slightly higher speed of 1.95Ghz, but the cores remain the same.
The 6 Gen 3 integrates an Adreno 710 GPU and a 5G modem-RF system, ensuring seamless connectivity. It supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth v5.2, enhancing wireless communication capabilities, also identical to the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2.
In terms of display capabilities, this Chipset supports FHD+ displays with up to 120Hz refresh rate, compared to 144Hz support available on 7s Gen 2. Aside from that, its 12-bit triple ISPs enable support for up to 48MP single sensor, 32+16MP dual-camera sensors, up to 200MP photo capture, and more. Again, these specs are also the same 7s Gen 2.
It also incorporates Snapdragon features, including Snapdragon sound with Qualcomm Aqstic, aptX lossless audio codecs for high-quality, aptx Adaptive, lossless music streaming, and more. It is compatible with up to 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and up to UFS 3.1 storage type. The FastConnect 6700 mobile connectivity system ensures fast and reliable wireless connections. For location positioning, it gets dual-frequency GNSS, GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, and NavIC. It is equipped with Quick Charge 4+ technology for fast charging.
Aside from the lower clocked efficiency cores and display support up till 120Hz refresh rate, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 is essentially the same chipset as Snapdragon 7s Gen 2. We see no reason as to why Qualcomm would unveil this chipset and what purpose it serves. The Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 it released in June was worse than 6 Gen 1 in terms of performance. However, the 6 Gen 3 is better than 6s Gen 3, but is worse than 7s Gen 2 with minor nerfs.